and the deciding criteria here are a feel for Arabic, a sound understanding of it, and a survey of its usage with this expression placed first. Sībawayh explicitly mentioned emphasis, but did not exclude other implications. For it would be inappropriate for someone to free ten slaves, for example, and then say to one of them, “You alone I freed.” Anyone hearing him would object, saying, “But you freed others too.” Were exclusivity not understood, neither would this statement be inappropriate nor would the objection be justified.

Consider His words, Most High: 2:40 “Fear Me alone,” and 2:41 “And fear Me alone.” Do you not find that they amount to saying, “Fear no one other than Me, and fear none besides Me”? Likewise, “You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help” amounts to saying, “We worship none other than You, and we seek help from none besides You.” Anyone with a sound feel for the language understands this exclusivity from the wording. No weight should be given to the disputation of those whose understanding is meagre and for whom the door to doubt and casting doubt has been opened. Such people are a scourge upon knowledge and an affliction upon minds and understanding.

Moreover, the pronoun iyyāka (“you”) points to the very self and reality of the one addressed in a way that an attached pronoun does not. Thus, iyyāka qasadtu wa-ahbabtu (“You are the one I intended and loved”) conveys the sense, “Your very reality and self are what I intend,” in a way that qasadtuka wa-ahbabtuka (“I intended you and loved you”) does not. Likewise, iyyāka a‘nī (“You are the one I mean”) conveys, “Your own self, your very being and reality, are what I mean.”

This is why some grammarians have held that iyyā is an explicit noun annexed to the attached pronoun. This view has not received a satisfactory refutation.

Were our present concern not something beyond this, we would discuss this question fully, set out the grammarians’ positions, and defend the strongest view. Perhaps, with Allah’s help, we shall return to it.

Repeating iyyāka also indicates that each of these meanings applies to each of the two verbs. Repeating the pronoun conveys this more forcefully than omitting it. Thus, if you say to a king, for example, “You alone I love, and you alone I fear,” this expresses the restriction of love and fear to his person, and the emphasis placed on mentioning him, in a way that “You alone I love and fear” does not.